The field of this invention is that of shipping packages, and the invention relates more particularly to packages for shipping and dispensing a series of integrated circuit mounting sockets or the like.
Integrated circuit mounting sockets typically have contacts mounted in a socket body to connect to integrated circuit terminals inserted into body openings at one side of the body and have terminal posts extending from the contacts in two rows at the opposite side of the body to be connected to circuit means on printed circuit boards and the like. Such sockets are conventionally loaded for shipment in serial relation to each other inside a low cost, open-ended, extruded plastic tube which has a reentrant rib formed along the length of the tube so that the socket bodies rest on the rib and so that the rows of contact terminal posts are suspended in protected relation on respective sides of the rib. Means are arranged in the open tube ends to retain sockets in the tube during shipment and are adapted to be subsequently removed from the tube ends for permitting the sockets to be dispensed or fed in sequence from an open end of the tube into automatic socket mounting equipment or the like for mounting on circuit boards. Such packages are also used for shipping and dispensing integrated circuit units themselves. As manufacture, shipping and assembly of such sockets on circuit boards and the like become increasingly automated, the costs of loading, shipping, and unloading sockets from the shipping tubes becomes of increasing significance and some problems have been encountered in assuring proper protection for the sockets during shipping while also permitting economical loading and unloading of sockets from such tubular packages. In one known system for example, tabs are struck or separated from the extruded tube material along three sides of the tab and the tabs are hinged along fourth sides near each end of the tube so that the distal ends of the tabs incline down into the tube chamber and incline toward each other from opposite ends of the tubes for intercepting and holding sockets in serial relation to each other inside the tubes. In that system, some difficulty is encountered in forming the tabs after loading sockets into the tube without injuring the sockets; the tabs do not provide a great degree of reliable support to assure that heavier sockets or integrated circuit units do not slide out of the tubes during shipment or particularly during handling; and when a tab is subsequently bent back out of the tube to allow the sockets to be dispensed from an open tube end, the tab is not assuredly removed from the tube chamber to assure free feeding of sockets from the tube. Another tubular package system has plastic pins or rivets detachably fitted into ends of the tubes to extend across the tube ends for retaining the sockets or the like within the tubes during shipping. Such pins or rivets provide firmer and more reliable retention of sockets within the tubes during shipment but add both material cost and cost of inserting the pins and of removing and disposing of the pins when the sockets are subsequently removed from the tubes after shipment.